Sunday, August 26, 2012

Rewards of the Week

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a really fun week for us. On Wednesday morning we took a trip with our district president to Linden to pay for damages done to one of the apartments that the Elder were renting. We then visited the missionary couple, Elder and Sister Summers who are serving there. Elder Summers is the Branch President there. He took us down to the river to see the river people who live there. Most of them are not members of the church, but they come and enjoy the meetings the branch has. One of the young men, Troy took us in a canoe across the river to meet a women who is dying of cancer. She also was not a member, but she asked for a Priesthood blessing and we sang some songs to her to comfort her. She then had her son bring us some of the most delicious apple bananas we have ever seen.

It was interesting to see how these people live. They have no electricity so they cook over open fires and they get their water from the river for cleaning. I don't know how they purify it for drinking, but they were healthy looking people and they lived and worked together as complete families. So many of the members in the city of Georgetown consist of single parents trying to raise children alone. It was refreshing to see happy families. Most of the families on the river were Amer-Indians (the Guyanese term for Native Americans) but some were from East Indian descent.

Then on Saturday, we had the baptisms of an entire family and a wedding for a couple who both are returned missionaries. The family had four children, three boys and one girl. They will be a great strength to their new branch. We celebrated with the wedding party by joining them in a luncheon. The Guyanese people love to eat fried rice, fried noodles, curried garbanzo beans, bread made of a pastry like dough and curried chicken. They always have soda pop with their meals. We thought we had chosen a bottle of water to drink, but it turned out to be cream soda. If you notice, there was no fruit or vegetables in the meal. This is typical for the Guyanese people, however, often they have watermelon or cut up pineapple with their meal. Needless to say type 2 diabetes is rampant in Guyana.

One other thing, I used to check the weather often in Idaho, but I hardly ever do anymore. It is always the same. It ranges from 72 to 88 degrees from morning until evening, every single day. We are only 7 degrees north of the equator so winter is going to be very similar to summer. I am told that the winter months of December and January will go to about 68 in the morning to 84 in the afternoon. The only exciting thing that happens is a good shower pretty often and lots of rain during the rainy season. We have never worn a jacket here. It never gets cold.

We miss all of you and think of you often. Ruth Ann told us about the great wedding that Brigham had and Eve told us about Jeremiah's wedding and how much fun that was. Mary lets us know what is happening in Dayton, and Spencer and Barbara let us know about the school events. Feel free to email us at anytime. Gay, thank you for the happy birthday message. We love you all.
Elder and Sister Beutler

P.S. Roxane, to celebrate your birthday we watched the Sound of Music on Friday evening!